Many wireline and wireless telecommunications service providers offer call forwarding as a feature for redirecting telephone calls to subscribers. Typically, these features require the subscriber to specify an alternate telephone number for forwarding all incoming calls or unanswered incoming calls and to communicate this information to the service provider. Once the call forwarding information is received, the service provider forwards incoming calls to the subscriber's alternate telephone number. When the call forwarding feature is no longer desired, the subscriber is typically required to communicate selection to the service provider which then stops the forwarding of telephone calls.
One of the drawbacks associated with current call forwarding services is that the subscriber is required to remember to contact the service provider to manually activate and deactivate call forwarding. Thus, a subscriber runs the risk of not receiving telephone calls to a primary number if he or she forgets to contact the service provider to deactivate call forwarding. In an effort to address this situation, some service providers offer a “cradle” device which automatically activates the forwarding telephone calls to a preselected wireline telephone number when a wireless phone is “plugged in” to the cradle and which automatically deactivates call forwarding when the phone is removed. This previous solution, however, requires the subscriber to purchase and use the aforementioned cradle device. Furthermore, the subscriber is still required to communicate the forwarding telephone numbers to the service provider in order to use the cradle call forwarding device.